500 Women Liberationists March For Equal Rights

Approximately 500 women, demanding abortion law reform and equal working rights braved cold weather to march yesterday from Park St. to Faneuil Hall. The march was part of a weekend long celebration of International Women's Day.

Bread and Roses, a socialist women's liberation organization, sponsored the march. They labeled their police approved route the "Trail of Abuses" because it passed the State House where "men make laws which deny [women] freedom." the Charles St. stores "where women are fashioned into sex objects," the Massachusetts General Hospital which "pays men more than women for the same job." and the Charles Street Jail, "a symbol of rampant political repression which now reigns,"

Only a handful of spectators turned out along the march route to hear the women singing "Move on over or we'll move on over you" and to see signs proclaiming "Free our sisters, free ourselves."

Marshalls of the march passed out statements of the group's demands to watchers and pasted women's liberation stickers to buildings along the route. At Faneuil Hall one of the marchers tied a garter to the thigh of Samuel Adam's statue which read "We want day care."

The group's demands were for "free medical care including abortion and birth control, equal pay and equal work for men and women, an end to degrading images of women in schools, news media, advertisements, and entertainment, and free community controlled child-care centers."

Fifth Generation

At Faneuil Hall Florence Lascom, a women's liberationist since 1914, reminded the demonstrators that they were the fifth generation to fight for women's rights and spoke of the goal of equal pay and equal work as the most important struggle to come.

Representatives of Bread and Roses, Mothers for Adequate Welfare, and the Black Panther Sisters also spoke.

On Saturday, a teach-in at M.I.T.-organized by the Women's History Group-featured panels and seminars on women's rights, working women, and black women, and a speech by Evelyn Reed, a Marxist anthropologist.

Last night, WBCN-FM broadcast an hour-long tape prepared by Bread and Roses and devoted to the subject of women's liberation. The radio program included examples of prejudice against women-in advertising, music, and publications.

WBCN Donated Time

WBCN made the time available to the women's group free of charge after 30 of its members protested a WBCN ad that stated, "if you're a chick, we need typists."

In that protest, members of the group loosed eight-chicks on the station manager's desk saying "These are chicks, we are women."

Yesterday's march broke up at three although many demonstrators left before the speeches were through due to the cold.